Dreaming of Reality

Dream-reality confusion in borderline personality disorder: a theoretical analysis

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Dream argument

Nobody forced me to do it. And I didn't like it. You HAD the potential to improve your work.

The words used in the book showcased your good vocabulary and there was no grammatical error in your writing which proves that you CAN be better, but ONLY after you get off your high horse. Stay humble, if a group of people liked your book don't degrade them by saying that you are getting bored of good reviews. Revealing phone numbers of other people? And then comparing the same with people revealing your insta handle and faces? Are you for real? Now apart from the book there were certain write ups they wrote.

I read just one and it was hands down the worst and so triggering. I gave them a leeway because this is their first book and it's a long road ahead IF you choose to do it the right way. But this is not their first time being humans is it? Be a good human being first. STOP degrading other people, author or bookstagrammers. Nobody is out there to get you or is conspiring against you.

Are you preoccupied with your present or is the present a delusional existence? Slowly mapping your path towards the end. The plot revolves around the love story of a teacher and her student, but it won't keep you deprived of any element that's needed to craft a story flawless in it's own unique way. Oct 07, Nytika Shetty rated it did not like it.

How do I hate this book, let me count the ways. The only reason I bought this book is because I kept seeing Instagram ads for it. Their claim of this book been better than a Chethan Bhagat novel turned out to be a tall one. I found this book to be absolutely pretentious and towards the end obnoxious.

One of the post on their Instagram mentioned Fitzgerald to be one of the many inspirations. Fitzgerald explains things , moments and feelings like poetry. These two were just downright tacky. The lightbulb moved like the first flight of a cheap single seat acrobatic aircraft right after the man in the cockpit had made love to his beloved after months. Something I have to mention is- " I don't know what looks more appealing, these painting or this pasta" I'm sorry , but no 9 year old talks like this.

Let it be known that I have a 9 year old niece with a soul older than the world and is essentially everyone's granny and she would NEVER make such a statement. Don't even get me started on this 9 year old's analysis of a painting. Either the authors decide to go on a long description about how someone's voice is a person with its own voice and a ridiculous description about an earring OR they choose to say " like anything " And what is with the obsession about describing the smiles and how everyone is always smiling and the different ways to smile.

Like I get it, they're fucking smiling. Never has smiling bothered me this much or the repeated use of the word aesthetic.

Speaking about words , the authors made up quite a few of their own words - Lipsed, carroted, chickenly, bombustled, muschered. Towards the end , I just skimmed through the pages because I can never not finish a book except for one exception. This wasn't a book about a love story it was about trying to portray a toxic relationship as a romance. Aug 10, Urvashi Jain rated it it was amazing. Ridhima Maniktala, a young college- going girl also gives tuitions in the evenings.

Rihansh, who used to study in Dehradun, is now back in town and is forced to join Ridhima's classes. Slowly, they fall in love. Everything is rainbows and unicorns for them until Ridhima starts connecting her dreams to her real life. She sees a young couple with a baby girl, in her dream.

One day, all of a sudden, the husband dies. Is this couple the future Ridhima and Rihansh? Is Rihansh really going to die? There is a lot to unravel in this romantic thriller. The book is well-written with a wonderful flow of thoughts. The readers are sure to applaud the authors' efforts and research that they did before penning down the plot. I, absolutely, loved the climax. It was so unpredictable. I would have appreciated if the thriller element was more instead of so much focus on Ridhima's relationship with Rihansh.

But I agree it was needed to explore the aspect of teacher- student relationship as well. Overall, the book is a nice read and very difficult to put down midway! The title of the book is quite intriguing. It revolves around Rihansh and Ridhima, who share a student-teacher relationship initially. They gradually grow closer to each other by connecting intellectually and emotionally. The twist comes when Ridhima repeatedly dreams about a family and those dre "But people in love usually do realize at some point that love is not a straightforward sprint race, love is Takeshi's Castle.

The twist comes when Ridhima repeatedly dreams about a family and those dreams turn out to be vivid and life-like. I was hooked to find out the reality behind those dreams and how the relationship of Rihansh and Ridhima would progress.

I had my share of laughter and nostalgia because of these references. The narrative is refreshing and the authors have broken the fourth wall which was quite engaging. It is not a typical love story but a lot more than that. Grab a copy for yourself because this one is a fun read! Jul 24, Akshay Harake rated it it was amazing. So here's to the artistry work of two brilliant authors. At first sight to it, I was pleased to its cover, its mesmerising! In all times, they are share everything with each other, and have a perfect Utopic relationship.

The thing that surprise me the most was the plot twist that awaited me—the So here's to the artistry work of two brilliant authors. The thing that surprise me the most was the plot twist that awaited me—the point where Ridhima realised the truth about her dreams of Sara. Before buying the book, I thought of it as a romance novel but as soon as I started reading it, I realized it was a mix of different genre and wonderful and attractive characters!

Jun 10, Muskaan Premchandani rated it really liked it. I appreciate the efforts the authors have put in the book. The way this book is written: An excellent new kind of narrative. When I got this book, I was sure that it will be a pure romance, but no! It was more than that. It didnt fail to keep me intrigued. A bittersweet ending with a scoop of twist and suspense. It took four years to complete this novel. It is written with great compassion and depth of understanding.

I genuinely felt very happy about the thought of these guys coming up with a novel to leave a mark in this world. This book can be noor of your book shelf: D I would like to recommend this book to the readers of any age. Sep 25, Madhumitha rated it it was ok. This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.

To view it, click here. Things I liked about the book - the writing, description, plot. Too cheesy at times. And I was able to guess alia was ridhima but the male protagonist's part was unguessable. As a whole, the book was okay for me. Didn't hate it ,didn't love it either. But it disappointed me as I had high expectations on it because of all the good reviews I heard.

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Mar 21, Kshipra Hada rated it it was amazing. I can't get over this book. The way it's written is just worth so much appreciation! It's worth skipping sleeps for. I never complete a novel once I start one, but I couldn't stop myself from reading it to its very end. And I'm going to keep reading it. And I'm going to do it, right now. Aug 11, Naveen Nimmala rated it it was amazing. Jul 20, Rira rated it really liked it.

Noor Anand, Karan Kapoor Rating: The story revolves around the relationship between Rihansh and Ridhima. The plot is very modern and brave. It dwells on an emotion that transcends time and space. The vocabulary is simple yet striking. There are no grammatical errors.

There are references to many other cultures and their concepts, like ikigai. The relationship portrayed shows that the girl is older than the boy, a concept still not so popular among Indi Type: The relationship portrayed shows that the girl is older than the boy, a concept still not so popular among Indian culture until recently. The climax of the story is impressive. It will have the reader gawking at the chapters even if they finish it. This debut left me surprised. Several variables related to this hypothesis were identified through a theoretical analysis of the scientific literature.

People with BPD have nightmares more often than other people Semiz et al. Many BPD patients experience various cognitive disturbances, including problems with reality testing Fiqueierdo, ; Mosquera et al. People with thin boundaries are more prone to DRC than people with thick boundaries, and people with BPD tend to have thin boundaries Hartmann, The theoretical analysis on the basis of these findings suggests that people who suffer from BPD may be more susceptible to confusing dream content with actual waking events.

Dream-reality confusion DRC is a difficulty or inability to determine whether an event or experience occurred during the waking state or whether it was part of a dream. Although, only few studies on DRC in non-clinical populations have been conducted e. Research has found that there is a relationship between DRC and psychotic symptoms e. BPD is a pervasive pattern of instability of interpersonal relationships, self-image and affect, and marked impulsivity that begins by early adulthood and is present in a variety of contexts DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association, , p.

To qualify for this diagnosis, the person should, among other symptoms, make a frantic effort to avoid real or imaginary abandonment, experience a chronic feeling of emptiness or stress-related temporary paranoid symptoms, or exhibit severe dissociative symptoms.

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Moreover, persons with BPD often engage in self-destructive behaviors and are at significant risk of suicide. Borderline personality disorder affects between 1 and 5. Due to the complex psychopathology of BPD, numerous studies have examined different areas of functioning in individuals with this disorder. The present theoretical analysis addresses the question of whether individuals with certain features of BPD may have difficulty distinguishing between dreams and reality. This hypothesis is supported by the underlying assumption that there are groups of interrelated variables that are present in both DRC and BPD.

These variables, which we identified through an analysis of the scientific literature, can be divided into the following categories: This division was made on the basis of theoretical considerations; no factor analyzes have been conducted yet. Each of these five variables is presented separately below. Sleep disturbances, for the purpose of this theoretical analysis, include a variety of problems with sleep that are discussed below.

Introduction

Such sleep problems are very common among individuals with BPD Hafizi, Though there is little epidemiological data on sleep disorders among persons diagnosed with BPD, cross-sectional studies show that sleep disorders are prevalent in 15— Compared to a non-clinical group, individuals with BPD take more time to fall asleep, sleep for shorter times, have lower sleep efficiency, and have frequent sleep disturbances Semiz et al. Patients with BPD also have more night awakenings than persons from a non-clinical population Battaglia et al.

Labile sleep—wake cycles are another example of sleep disturbances. Labile sleep—wake cycles may promote the intrusion of dreamlike experiences into waking consciousness that can lead to DRC and foster the feeling of depersonalization, which is a dissociative symptom. They also have an adverse effect on memory, thus favoring the creation of false memories van der Kloet et al. Individuals who report sleep disturbances score high on dissociative scales, fantasy proneness a tendency for deep and long-standing involvement in fantasy and imagination; Lynn and Rhue, , p.

Taken together, the above relationships appear to support our hypothesis that BPD patients are likely to experience DRC. Persons diagnosed with BPD have a stronger tendency toward dissociative symptoms than non-clinical population and individuals who suffer from depression or schizophrenia Merckelbach et al. The occurrence of dissociative symptoms during the course of BPD may be associated with childhood traumatic events. According to one of the theories of the etiology of BPD, this personality disorder develops in individuals who report that traumatic events were a characteristic of their early lives, mainly physical abuse and emotional neglect.

A study of patients with BPD found that those who had high scores on the Dissociative Experience Scale DES , which measures the frequency of dissociative symptoms, such as autobiographical amnesia, derealization, depersonalization, absorption, and identity alteration Bernstein and Putnam, , experienced significantly more severe emotional and physical neglect and emotional and physical abuse but not sexual abuse during childhood than those who had low scores on the DES Watson et al.

The results suggest that individuals exposed to severe traumatic events during childhood are more likely to develop dissociative symptoms. Traumatic experiences also often interfere with the integration of mental functions, thus, leading to their dysfunction Vermetten and Spiegel, Moreover, dissociative symptoms involve automatic avoidance strategies that defend consciousness from traumatic memories Briere, It is noteworthy that dissociative symptoms are one of the correlates of DRC Rassin et al.

Levitan , p. It seems that frequent experiences of dissociative symptoms or their intensification may produce frequent intrusions of dreams into experiences during the waking state. Dissociative symptoms and proneness to fantasy — characteristics linked to DRC — are correlated, and it appears this correlation can be mediated by experiences during sleep Giesbrecht and Merckelbach, High fantasy-prone students report more dissociative symptoms than their friends who score low or medium on fantasy-proneness Rauschenberger and Lynn, ; Waldo and Merritt, Furthermore, individuals who find it difficult to discriminate between dreams and reality score higher on scales that measure dissociative symptoms and fantasy proneness than individuals who do not confuse dream content with experiences during the waking state Rassin et al.

A study of 51 women from the general population found that fantasy proneness is linked to both dissociative symptoms and everyday cognitive failures Merckelbach et al. Moreover, dissociative symptoms, fantasy proneness, cognitive failures, and sleep disturbances are correlated van Heugten — van der Kloet et al.

Later in the current paper, we present data indicating that disturbances in cognitive functioning are among the variables that increase proneness to DRC. The relationship between dissociative symptoms and fantasy proneness also has been observed in clinical populations.

In addition, Steiger et al. To summarize, the above findings support our hypothesis that individuals with diagnosed BPD are more likely to experience DRC because of their tendency to experience dissociative symptoms and related phenomena, such as fantasy proneness, sleep disturbances, and cognitive problems. Individuals suffering from BPD experience more negative life events than other individuals — even those with other personality disorder s Pagano et al.

The quantitative analysis of a group of 27 individuals diagnosed with BPD and a non-clinical group of 20 individuals showed that the BPD group had dreams with more negative affect than those in the non-clinical group. Generally, individuals suffering from BPD experience negative dreams, including nightmares, more often than individuals who do not have any of the characteristic symptoms of this personality disorder Schredl et al.

Nightmares are sleep disturbances that are related to sleep disorders. They are defined as vivid dreams, charged with negative emotions that awaken the dreamer from sleep DSM-V; American Psychiatric Association, The higher frequency of nightmares among BPD patients compared to the non-clinical population is related to greater emotional instability and heightened neuroticism in this clinical group Simor et al. The intensity of BPD symptoms is positively correlated with the frequency of nightmares Semiz et al.

To try to explain the prevalence of nightmares in persons with BPD, we present two theories: Levin and Nielsen proposed a theory to explain the occurrence of dysphoric dreaming, which is based on two major assumptions: The first, cross-state continuity , assumes that some structures and processes implicated in nightmare production are also engaged during the expression of pathological signs and symptoms such as dissociative symptoms during the waking state Levin and Nielsen, , p.

The second, the multilevel explanation , refers to the idea that nightmare formation can be explained at two different levels: At the cognitive—emotional level, there are imagery processes that represent emotional dream imagery, whereas the neuronal level contains a network of brain regions responsible for imagistic and emotional processes.

This model was created to explain the occurrence of nightmares in the course of posttraumatic stress disorder PTSD ; however, it may also be used in an attempt to describe experiences related both to nightmares and cross-state continuity in patients diagnosed with BPD. We will not discuss the concept of neuronal correlates of DRC and BPD, as this is beyond the scope of the present article.

Instead, we will focus on the notion of cross-state continuity with reference to BPD. Other factors include high degrees of physiological and psychological reactivity, maladaptive coping, fantasy proneness, imagery vividness, and thin boundaries. Numerous studies suggest that almost all of these factors are usually present during the course of BPD, however more recent studies indicate that there is no heightened physiological reactivity in BPD e.

Persons diagnosed with this personality disorder are characterized by emotional dysregulation, which is the inability to flexibly respond to and manage emotions, entailing emotional sensitivity, heightened and labile negative affect, a deficit of appropriate regulation strategies, and a surplus of maladaptive regulation strategies Carpenter and Trull, In addition, BPD entails affective instability and a low level of emotion recognition Cole et al.

Studies confirm that BPD patients display a negative distortion in the identification of their own emotional states and the emotional states of other persons e. The inability to accurately recognize emotional states may intensify negative affect, emotional instability, and emotional reactivity in everyday life. Furthermore, patients with BPD are unable to tolerate distress and they usually use maladaptive regulation strategies to cope with distress and the negative emotions they experience, such as ruminations, impulsive behaviors, or cognitive avoidance Carpenter and Trull, Disorders of emotional processes in patients with BPD seem to occur not only in the waking state, but also during dreaming, as in the case of nightmares Simor et al.

The effects of nightmares and other bad dreams, apart from the fear they produce, can involve deficits in appropriate emotion-regulation skills, and decrease ability to cope with distress during the subsequent day, according to the ECM. Patients with BPD experience emotional cascades during the waking state, and this negative affect induces rumination — repetitive thoughts with mainly negative content.

Ruminations increase negative affect, which, in turn, intensify ruminations. These processes result in increased cognitive activity during sleep that favors the appearance of nightmares and maladaptive behaviors during the waking state that are intended to cope with negative emotions. It seems that frequent nightmares in persons with BPD may influence the occurrence of negative life events Selby et al. Generally, a simplified model of emotional cascades assumes the subsequent occurrence of: Elevated cognitive arousal during sleep may cause awakenings or semi-awakenings, which consequently may lead to difficulty distinguishing between dreaming and waking experiences Trajanovic et al.

In addition, the inability to cope effectively with stressful situations may enhance the tendency toward dissociative states Mosquera et al. Moreover, a study by Rassin et al.

The Dreaming Reality

Taken together, the findings suggest that frequent unpleasant dream content in BPD may be a factor that increases proneness to DRC. Patients with BPD can experience a number of different cognitive disturbances. Usually, executive functions, such as working memory and response inhibition, also are disturbed in BPD Hagenhoff et al. Moreover, BPD is characterized by deficits in feedback processing, altered social inference, and poor decision-making skills Trivedi, ; Mak and Lam, Generally, four types of cognitive disturbances are distinguished in BPD: A detailed description of cognitive problems in BPD, however, remains beyond the scope of the present paper.

What is important is that problems with reality testing may occur in patients with BPD Fiqueierdo, Reality monitoring, which is related to reality testing, seems to play a significant role in the process of distinguishing dream content from waking experiences. Reality monitoring, a type of source monitoring, is defined as the ability to discriminate between memories of actual events, and memories of dreamed events, imagination, or delusions. Reality monitoring consists of two decision-making processes: Memory source is distinguished on the basis of its characteristics: Dreams are classified as internally generated events, which are difficult to distinguish from similar, external events because they are created without conscious cognitive operations Johnson et al.

In the case of dreams, conscious cognition, which is the most important cue that would help differentiate between internally generated memories and those generated externally is not present. These conclusions indicate that DRC may be associated with difficulty with reality monitoring. The temporary suspension of the source monitoring process, along with reduced ability to respond to a sensory stimulus and reduced attention, is one of the common features of both dreaming and waking fantasy.

These processes may make it more difficult to distinguish between the content generated during dreaming and waking fantasy. Both waking fantasy and dreams play an integral role in mood regulation, adaptive information processing, and maintenance of self-cohesion by providing working templates for future goal-directed behavior and the development and maintenance of self-schemas Levin and Young, BPD patients exhibit certain cognitive disturbances that make them more prone to problems related to reality testing, and waking fantasy may also disturb the processes involved in correct source monitoring.

Furthermore, it seems that mood regulation is disturbed in BPD because of more negative dream content and emotional cascades at night Selby et al. Moreover, individuals who are more likely to make cognitive mistakes are less likely to trust their cognitive skills van Heugten — van der Kloet et al. We hypothesize that people with BPD who have some cognitive deficits will trust their cognitive processes less because they are not sure if their perception of reality is correct. Our assumption is that due to their cognitive disturbances, persons with BPD, compared to non-clinical populations, more often will be unsure what the source of certain events or experiences are dream vs.

The difficulty that BPD patients encounter in reality testing Fiqueierdo, and their problems with metacognitive monitoring and metacognitive knowledge Sharma and Singh, seem to be the only examples of cognitive disturbances that could lead to a higher probability of experiencing DRC, compared to people from non-clinical populations.

The concept of boundaries, which was defined by Hartmann , refers to a wide spectrum of boundaries in the mind, including interpersonal boundaries the self vs. Thus, boundaries refer to:

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